Mikrokosmos is excited to announce the 2020 Mikrokosmos Fiction and Poetry Contest. The top three submissions for each genre will be published in our annual print issue and receive a cash prize:
- First Prize: $200
- Second Prize: $100
- Third Prize: $50
All non-prize winning submission will also be considered for our online publication, mojo.
Guidelines:
Fiction: Submit up to three pieces totaling no more than 6,000 words. Do not put your name or any identifying information anywhere on your manuscript. Top ten submissions will be sent on to our Fiction Judge: Bud Smith.
Bud Smith is the author of the novels Teenager, F250, Tollbooth, the short story collection Double Bird, the memoir WORK, and the poetry collection Dust Bunny City. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Hobart, Hazlitt, Wigleaf, Joyland, and elsewhere. He works heavy construction and lives in New Jersey.
Poetry: Submit up to five poems or ten pages of poetry. Do not put your name or any identifying information anywhere on your manuscript. Top ten submissions will be sent on to our Poetry Judge: Michael Kriesel.
Michael Kriesel is the author of the collections Zen Amen: abecedarians, Chasing Saturday Night: Poems about Rural Wisconsin, Whale of Stars, Moths Mail the House, and Feeding My Heart to the Wind. He is the winner of the 2015 Hearst Prize, has served as the President of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and his work can be found in Alaska Quarterly, Antioch Review, Library Journal, Rattle, North American Review, The Progressive, and elsewhere.
Contest Rules and Info
Submissions must be new original work that has not previously been published. You are only allowed one submission for each genre. Multiple submissions will not be evaluated.
Cost of entry is $5 USD.
We will not accept work from current or former students, relatives, or those with close personal relationships with our judges.
Submissions will be received until Sunday, October 25th at 11:59 pm. The top ten submissions in each genre will be sent to our judges shortly afterward. Finalists and winners will be notified through email.
All submissions should be made through our submissions manager. We do not accept submissions by e-mail or post at this time. Please read the guidelines in each particular genre before submitting.
We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere by withdrawing immediately.
All submissions will be considered for publication in our online issue. Selected works have the possibility of being published in the annual print edition of Mikrokosmos Literary Journal.
If selected to be published online, mojo pays a $15 USD flat rate per piece. If a piece does not win but is selected for publication in Mikrokosmos, an additional $15 USD will be paid. We know this isn’t much, but as writers ourselves, we like to pay our contributors.
If you have any questions or comments, please email the editors at mojoeditors@gmail.com.
All payment is subject to any budget alterations that occur throughout the year. We prefer to issue payment through mailed checks, but we can arrange other options if a check does not work for you. You will need to submit a completed W-9 or W-8BEN in order to receive payment.
